Tell you what, February's First Friday was enormously busy compared to January.

I think First Friday is still figuring out what it wants to be. I know there is a big controversy about the Roosevelt street closure - from the sounds of it, the expense of it is strangulating to the local businesses in the area and prohibitively expensive in comparison to the previous street closure, which was only on Garfield. Between the politics happening right now over this issue and the lack of access to electricity for vendors on the street, we are extremely appreciative for our partnership and support from MADE. Without this collaboration, we would have to power the lighting for our tent with a power generator, which pumps air pollution into the already-polluted winter Phoenix air, which we were not willing to do.

Aside from this issue, vendor requirements are another factor to consider in the overall scheme of things. In short, is First Friday going to be a place where local artists can show their work and find a good audience (and affordably so), or is it going to be a place for vendors who hawk items imported from other places? One of the guidelines for vendors at the Tempe Indie Chic event and the Sunnyslope Art Walk is that someone who has a booth must be representing their own work. I understand the challenge this situation creates - the street closures are very expensive, the police came in and said that the street closure needed to happen on Roosevelt instead of Garfield, and in order to afford the street closure, it must be paid for by someone. Also, will it stay bizarre? It's been known for being a bizarre free-for-all rather than some totally organized thing where you can't do what you want unless you pay for a booth and follow the system. That's kind of the point, to have a bizarre free-for-all, isn't it? Hopefully that won't get squashed.

I saw this event in Kevin Patterson's Facebook status:"In my Inbox from artlink... There will be a Downtown Artist Issues Task Force meeting on February 11th, at City Hall at 3:00 pm. Please come. The key topic will be the street closures on Roosevelt and their impact on First Fridays. Please RSVP to : 602.262.4637 so the city can find an appropriately sized room."

Thursday at 3pm ... how many people with day jobs will be taking time off for this? I'm lucky because I have some flexibility. Oh, the politics!

So, I make mention of this issue because it's the context for February's First Friday. It was EXTREMELY busy compared to January. People weren't out of town on vacation anymore. We weren't looking down the street towards Central, where all of the organized booths were smooshed up against each other, wondering if anyone would wander down to where we are. This month, we were in the thick of it, and it was busier than ever!

First Fridays have gotten way more fun for Shay and I now that we have a home base at a booth, instead of trying to find a seat at an overly-crowded bar. We try to show up for set-up around 4:30pm and don't leave until 11. We used to do a lot of bar-hopping but nowadays we wake up way early the next morning for Roadrunner Farmers Market, which requires set-up beginning at 7 am.

Karen shows up whenever she makes it after work. Also, Cora's schedule is packed full, now that Phoenix Chorale has rehearsals on First Fridays which are Free and Open-to-the-Public. So, she shows up whenever that ends.

This time, Logan was singing just across the street from us. Modified was very crowded.

Shay managed to capture a photo of only one rad bicyclist, but he wasn't around with the camera when the parade of bicycles rode past us (twice). The bicyclists were followed by a parade of skaters. It seemed a lot of people were into creating their own parades.

I guess this is what the band next door to us looked like. I didn't get out and see much, aside from walking into Modified.

I did see this guy walking around with a big kitten on his shoulder. If you blow up the bottom picture to full-size, you can see the reflection of the neon word "OPEN" in his eyes. It looks like he was struggling to stay awake.

I enjoyed listening to this girl's voice from where we were setting up. The idea I've heard a lot (and even wondered sometimes myself) that "people who come to First Friday have no money to spend" was debunked. Someone came up and put $1,000 in her tip jar.

This was the first time we unrolled and used our new Bewilderknits banner. Using the digital art from the ever-talented MALL, my husband Shay created an entire Bewilderknits night time scene for our banner. In this new scene, all three of us Bewilderknitters are sitting in a knitting circle under a tree in the dark (much like on our camping trips) in the moonlight. We are either very small or else insects are very large, because there is a giant ladybug in the tree above us and a very big snail is carrying away our balls of yarn. We came up with these fantastic ideas for images and MALL brought them to life with her terrific skill. We were SO excited to have our new banner featuring her artwork blown up to a 10 foot wide by 2 foot tall size.

We received a lot of questions about who did the artwork for the banner. You can click an image to blow it up and see more detail.

Mall even made reference to my Kittyknitter box line for me, by putting a stretching kitty next to my spinning wheel under the tree.

Something major was going on - either just the crowdedness or the great mood happening in the awesome weather, our new banner, or who-knows-what. People totally paid attention to our "Please Touch & Try On" sign and the booth became constantly filled with people.

In the picture below, everyone who was wearing something took it home with them!

My friend from ASU who I graduated with came with her friends and they all took home multiple items! They also looked fabulous in them, and I am making a special order for a capelette now. Anterre really looks fabulous in the teal cowl! I was so pleased :)

Pretty soon, a drumming circle started up just next to us in the yard. Shay took a few pictures before he jumped in.

To our surprise, February's First Friday was nearly as big as our Tempe Indie Chic event at the ASU Art Museum. We're excited for Third Friday. The weather these days is better than ever, and we meet (and re-meet) the greatest people at these events.

Someone recently left a comment on our last blog asking "Where do you like to create your things? What kind of music do you listen to while you're making these things?"

I am only one of three, but I can answer this for myself, for sure.

I know we all love knitting while camping, for one thing. The below pictures came from our last camping trip. I wrote a big blog about it on my personal blog, The Kittyknitter Blog.

Sometimes all three of us get together at one person's house and sit around for a few hours watching Netflix movies and knitting. Cora's house is particularly good lately because she has a fireplace and since her heater has seen better days, it actually warrants lighting a fire. These circles are always good opportunities for me because we each seem to start learning or doing new things on our own and then bring new skill sets to each knitting circle. I can call Karen's name for help if I drop a stitch, for instance, and she can totally help me fix something if what I'm working on just went totally wonky on me. This is Cora's couch where we often are sitting, and when we are not sitting there, all of her balls of yarn fit on it like a color wheel:

Lately I've been knitting on my couch though, since it's too cold to camp, and listening to Bat for Lashes.

When I start making things that require a sewing machine, I like to put on a movie and start sewing assembly-line style and I move really fast. I watched Howl's Castle twice in a row plus Princess Mononoke and made 7 felted leafy garland tendrils that way:

Howl's Castle and Princess Mononoke are just a couple of the terrific movies by Miyazaki. I am enraptured by these visually stunning movies full of wind and greenery. The phrase "visually stunning" is an understatement. They are extremely imaginative and totally manage to prevent my brain from attending to the mundane things in life (bills, work, laundry) and instead marvel about ideas. If you are unfamiliar with Miyazaki's work, below are some stills from these films:

Here is a link to Princess Mononoke's trailer:

"When the forest has been cleared, and the wolves wiped out, this place will be the richest land in the world." As you can see, while I really do love the Avatar movie, Princess Mononoke came first.

Roger Ebert explained his experience with Princess Mononoke in his review in the Sun Times in 1999:

"I go to the movies for many reasons. Here is one of them. I want to see wondrous sights not available in the real world, in stories where myth and dreams are set free to play. Animation opens that possibility, because it is freed from gravity and the chains of the possible. Realistic films show the physical world; animation shows its essence. Animated films are not copies of "real movies," are not shadows of reality, but create a new existence in their own right. True, a lot of animation is insipid, and insulting even to the children it is made for. But great animation can make the mind sing."

When I'm not at home, I'll even take a knitting bag with me to dinner and sit knitting in a booth at Rokerij. The lights are moody, the booths are filled with pillows, amazing food and drinks eventually arrive (always a good thing) and I don't have idle hands while sitting at the table. The picture below comes from VisitPhoenix's Photostream on Flickr.

I just came back from Dick's Hideaway where I sat at the bar and wove in the ends on 5 scarflettes while sitting there.

It probably seems odd when people see me at these places, but I make myself at home doing crafty things in public whenever the supplies are easily portable. The music at Rokerij and Dick's Hideaway is the same: Pandora is playing based off of whatever the servers like to listen to, and the servers always have good taste.

I hear The Cure a lot at Rokerij, someone there is obviously a fan. And I also hear Sufjan Stevens and Iron & Wine often at Dick's Hideaway.

I tend to see all down-time as possible knitting-time now. I knitted this hat while sitting at the dining room table after dinner at my parents' house when family was in town:

A lot of what comes out of me in my work is fragments from my childhood or other experiences. I recently made a scarflette that looks just like Peppermint Ice Cream from 31 Flavors. I also don't tend to often wear very girly or preppy clothes, but I tend to make a lot of things that would be generally considered as very girly and preppy. I recognize this as coming from my early days at private school in Paradise Valley.

When I make pointy and architectural hats, that is derived from the book I got when growing up called "The Santa Claus Book." I was very obsessed with this book, and it's illustrations. The book was about Santa Claus and had extensive sections on his elves and how to tell them apart, visually and personality-wise, from other woodland creatures like gnomes.

I think it's fair to say that a lot of fairy-tale, myth, and pop culture is blended together in my pieces. I was a child in the 80's and pop culture references are inside jokes that everyone shares.